Provision of Information
You have the responsibility to provide, to the best of your knowledge, accurate and complete information about the following:
- information about present complaints, past illnesses, hospitalizations, medications, and other matters relating to your health.
- unexpected changes in your condition to your practitioner.
- cooperate with all hospital personnel caring for you and to ask questions if you do not understand any information given. Understanding health problems is important to the success of your treatment plan.
Compliance Instructions
You are responsible for:
- following the treatment plan recommended by the practitioner primarily responsible for your care. This may include following the instructions of nurses and and other health personnel as they carry out the coordinated plan of care, implement the practitioner’s orders, and enforce applicable hospital rules and regulations.
- responsible for keeping appointments and, when you are unable to do so for any reason, notifying the responsible practitioner or the hospital.
Price Transparency
The federal government requires each hospital to post on its website a list of its standard charges for items and services provided by the hospital.
This website provides a standard list of charges provided at Veterans Memorial Hospital. Click Here for the Hospitals Standard Charges
While the list of charges is the same for every patient, the charges may vary somewhat based on the patient’s medical condition, amount of time spent in surgery or recovery, any complications that arise that may require additional unanticipated procedures, medications needed, and length of hospital stay, etc. Your bill reflects your use of services during your hospital stay and the hospital’s charges at the time you were admitted.
Insurance plans differ. Your insurance plan may pay more or less than the average price listed on this site. Your hospital bill may differ from the average charges shown in these tables for those reasons listed above. Health plans such as Medicare, Medicaid, commercial health insurance, worker’s compensation, etc., do not pay charges. Instead, they pay a set price that has been predetermined or negotiated in advance. The patient only pays the out-of-pocket amounts set by the health plan such as copays, coinsurance and/or deductibles. A patient who has the specific insurance codes for services requested, available from their physician, can better gauge charge estimates across hospitals. Click Here for listing of Negotiated Rates.
If you have questions directly related to the cost of services or your bill, please call Veterans Memorial Hospital at 563-568-3411 and ask to speak to one of our Financial Services Representatives. Information on health care charges for other Iowa hospitals can also be found at http://www.iowahospitalcharges.com/
No Surprise Billing Act
Click here for the Notice Form
Click here for the Consent Form
Your Rights and Protections Against Surprise Medical Bills
When you get emergency care or get treated by an out-of-network provider at an in-network hospital or ambulatory surgical center, you are protected from surprise billing or balance billing.
What is “balance billing” (sometimes called “surprise billing”)?
When you see a doctor or other health care provider, you may owe certain out-of-pocket costs, such as a copayment, coinsurance, and/or a deductible. You may have other costs or have to pay the entire bill if you see a provider or visit a health care facility that is out-of-network with your health plan.
You are protected from balance billing for:
Emergency services
If you have an emergency medical condition and get emergency services from an out-of-network provider or facility, the most the provider or facility may bill you is your plan’s in-network cost-sharing amount (such as copayments and coinsurance). This includes services you may get after you’re in stable condition, unless you give written consent and give up your protections not to be balanced billed for these post-stabilization services.
Certain services at an in-network hospital or ambulatory surgical center
When you get services from an in-network hospital or ambulatory surgical center, certain providers there may be out-of-network. In these cases, the most those providers may bill you is your plan’s in-network cost-sharing amount. This applies to emergency medicine, anesthesia, pathology, radiology, laboratory, neonatology, assistant surgeon, hospitalist, or intensivist services. These providers can’t balance bill you and may not ask you to give up your protections not to be balance billed.
You’re never required to give up your protections from balance billing. You also aren’t required to get care out-of-network. You can choose a provider or facility in your plan’s network.
When balance billing isn’t allowed, you also have the following protections:
You are only responsible for paying your share of the cost (like the copayments, coinsurance, and deductibles that you would pay if the provider or facility was in-network). Your health plan will pay out-of-network providers and facilities directly.
Your health plan generally must:
- Cover emergency services without requiring you to get approval for services in advance (prior authorization).
- Cover emergency services by out-of-network providers.
- Base what you owe the provider or facility (cost-sharing) on what it would pay an in-network provider or facility and show that amount in your explanation of benefits.
- Count any amount you pay for emergency services or out-of-network services toward your deductible and out-of-pocket limit.
If you believe you’ve been wrongly billed, you may contact the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) at 1-800-985-3059.
Visit https://www.cms.gov/nosurprises for more information about your rights under federal law.